Announcement of £200 million capital funding for teaching

Commenting on the announcement of £200 million of capital funding for the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts, Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group, said:

“We welcome the announcement by David Willetts of £200 million capital funding to improve teaching the science and engineering subjects which are so critical to driving growth. As the Chancellor has said, the sciences and engineering are the backbone of the UK economy and we are pleased he recognises that world-class infrastructure at leading universities is the all-important spinal cord that keeps it alive. Laboratories, buildings and equipment are vital for research, for teaching our brightest graduates and for working with businesses.

"We await the details of how the competition for this funding will work – whilst leveraging investment from industry is highly desirable, we hope the match funding requirements will leave universities with some flexibility in precisely how they do this.

“Although capital funding is important, it is essential that HEFCE also continues to focus their remaining teaching grant to support the high costs of teaching these subjects at research-intensive universities. We would also still like to see increases in recurrent capital funding, as laboratories and research facilities have running and upgrade costs that last long after the final brick is laid. Funding the operational costs of world-leading facilities is becoming increasingly difficult for our universities in the light of increased energy costs and the flat cash settlement for research funding that has been in place since 2010.”